Orkney Islands

The Orkney Islands (often also called only Orkney) is a group of islands. The group belongs to Scotland. It is about 16 kilometres north of Caithness. 20 of the about 70 islands have people living on them. The administrative centre is Kirkwall (with about 8000 people living there). The next bigger settlements are Stromness (2000 people) and St. Margaret's Hope (with about 550 people).

Ferry services go much of the time to Lerwick (on the Shetlands). Most islands have air strips (for airplanes). This includes the shortest known flight service in the world, between Westray and Papa Westray. Official flight time is 2 minutes. If the wind goes in the right direction, the flight can take just over a minute.